At last there is a public acknowledgement of the extent to which the NHS is being privatised. All over the country, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are subjecting NHS services to competitive tendering because they are afraid to do otherwise. Of the contracts let since 2010, approximately 70% have gone to the private sector. This is not surprising, since the private sector is expert at bidding for contracts while this procedure is relatively new to the public sector.

Andy Burnham is right when he says the public did not vote for the privatisation of the NHS and if the takeover by the private sector continues at the current rate it will be impossible to reverse, even if the next government is committed to a more balanced service delivery model. We at the SLHC have been raising public awareness on this issue and last month presented Monitor, the organisation that regulates NHS contracts, with over 2,000 letters from Lewisham residents asking that the NHS treatment they receive be delivered by the public sector. Since then a further 1,000 letters have been signed.

At a follow-up meeting with Monitor officials, campaign representatives were told that the policy to subject NHS services to competitive tendering was not evidence-based. In addition, CCGs have found the Monitor guidance on the requirement to use competitive tendering inadequate and have been unable to adopt other procurement options because of lack of information. Despite the concentration on competition there seems to be very little emphasis on monitoring the quality of services delivered through these contracts. There is no doubt that the government is pursuing a policy of privatisation for privatisation sake – the improvement of NHS services is not the objective.Dr Louise IrvineChair, Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign

• Your editorial (30 July) says that Labour has not addressed the real challenge about the NHS but Andy Burnham’s proposals for integrating the NHS and social care and using a capitation fee rather than a tariff for episodes of care does just that. The waste of money through the market bureaucracy and tendering, and the profits made by private companies, make privatisation a real issue. Guardian reporters have done a good job in documenting what is happening to the NHS and I hope your leader writers have kept abreast of these, as we do not need this paper to follow the neoliberal agenda pursued by Reform. The NHS needs more money, especially in general practice, to bring our spending up to the level of comparable EU countries and we can afford this. Wendy SavageLondon

• Francis Maude says he is interested in “mutualisation” of public services, including health (Report, 29 July). Given that David Cameron’s favourite business model is John Lewis, a hugely successful mutual company, why don’t we just hand over the NHS to John Lewis and be done with it? Would this not also address Unison’s qualms about privatisation?Michael NelsonLondon